UX, Usability and Design

WalkMe

Imagine you are a toddler.

You open your eyes in the morning and look for newer milestones to achieve – the toy eight feet away, the switch across the hall, the cookie container in the kitchen drawer. Whatever task you go after, there’s one thing you invariably need to do – (try to) walk baby steps. You fall and stand up again; you do it repeatedly, as you know there’s someone who will hold your hand to make you learn. To reach where you want to go that instant.

As a toddler, you can’t express the comfort you get when the parent holds your hand; the warmth of it, inspiring confidence and trust. You just stir up motivation and believe you can do it. No matter which coordinates of the world you belong to, any origin, any background – the language of trust remains the same, just as the process of learning to walk.

Now, let’s come back to the reality of our adult-life.

In today’s digital age, you are nothing but a toddler in your own right when you access the next new website or use the next new application. It is easy to get discouraged and seek different websites and applications that are easier to tread and assist in completing your goals. Imagine a “parent” that is always with you, like a guiding star, no matter what platform you are endeavor. Imagine the comfort of knowing that you will seldom falter or get confused in the ocean of the online world.

A group of visionaries have boldly chosen to become a parent to anyone who’s going online for their needs. The name, in itself, inspires warmth and trust; it can’t be any simpler and direct. And while I’m fortunate to write a review on this tool, let me begin by stating that the name is just the tip of the iceberg.

Taking a simple “help” concept and transforming it into an intuitive guiding tool is more than remarkable. I can’t help but put an <APPLAUSE> before even getting to the end of my review. I know for a fact that for those who have used this tool, they will echo my applause.

What is the rationale, you may ask?

If you own a website or an online application, you would know how challenging it is to be universally user-friendly. Even if your diagnosis of users and their goals are accurate, it is very unlikely that your interface would engage with all alike, let alone cater to all as well.

Usability and User Experience are the buzz words that are revolving around online site and app philosophies. And why not!? It is imperative for everyone to think on these lines as more and more companies are moving to software-as-a-service and Cloud models.

WalkMe certainly makes your job as a web or app owner easier. In literally two to three minutes, you can configure the tool with your own instructions and trigger points on your website, which directly guide your users based on your desired actions. Major important heuristics of Jakob Nielsen can thus be achieved without the need of expensive redesign of your interface.

Believe me, walking the baby steps of the web has never been so easy. You can literally drive your visitors through your website, making them go through the critical information and actions that you desire them to consume with ease; All this, with highly engaging and easily customizable tooltips (additional stars for the coolness factor!).

For business owners, WalkMe provides an intuitive mechanism to quickly make online walkthroughs for the intended target audience. The tool is available as a browser plug-in (currently on Firefox), which is light-weight and very easy to customize. The feature set is rich and complete. I can’t comment intelligently on the pricing strategy, but there are wide and flexible models that the WalkMe team has provided.

For visitors, WalkMe is the ultimate online parent, which relieves you of extensive and time-consuming decision-making while traversing the web.

For UX Professionals, like me, WalkMe is a steamroller (but a welcome one!) that hardly threatens to walk over our business, seriously. WalkMe is in fact a true inspiration to do things simply, effectively, and beautifully.

Following media coverage provides more insights into WalkMe’s recent accomplishments:

Vishal Mehta is a UX professional, hands-on designer and coder. He is a consultant to product companies in San Francisco Bay Area. He loves to play chess and design solutions in spare time. He ran a UX company, IDYeah Creations for six years in India. His expressions can be found on popular platforms like UX Booth, Technorati and SAP Community Network.